So as 2011 begins, Diana Sieger and other executives at community foundations in West Michigan are hopeful that giving may return to the days before the U.S. financial meltdown of 2008 and the ensuing recession.

“I can now be optimistic,” said Sieger, the president of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation who sees anecdotal, “non-quantifiable” signs that things could get better in 2011.

A recent national survey of foundation executives support that optimism.

Thirty-six percent of the 163 private foundations and 2,356 charities surveyed nationwide reported increased contributions from January to September 2010, which compares to just 23 percent in the same period in 2009, according to the survey conducted by GuideStar and a host of research and fundraising associations.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents reported a decline in contributions from January to September, versus 51 percent during the first nine months of 2009.

The survey results “may herald the beginning of an economic recovery in the nonprofit sector, although only time will tell if the trend will continue,” GuideStar said.

In West Michigan, foundation executives in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon — after going through a tough period that took a deep bite out of their assets, curtailed donations and forced them to change how their organizations operate — say they are seeing signs that donors are returning, albeit slowly and cautiously.

Juan Olivarez

Donors “just are not feeling like we’re out of this and let’s move forward and be as generous as they want to be,” said Juan Olivarez, president of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.

“It’s coming back. It’s not stabilized, but it’s coming back slowly,” Olivarez said. “The donor base is still very cautious.”

Still, he said, “we’re moving in the right direction,” as a steadily improving economy and positive stock market re-instill confidence in donors.

“I think 2011 is going to be on the upswing,” Olivarez said.

The economic recovery enabled community foundations to regain much of the declines in their assets during the last year.

The Kalamazoo Community Foundation saw assets drop dramatically, from a pre-recession $305 million to $160 million at one point in 2009 following the U.S. financial meltdown, then recover to $280 million in 2010.

“It was frightening,” Olivarez said of the decline, which forced the foundation to lean its operations. “It was a tough time but a very valuable time to make sure we were thinking about the future all of the time.”

The Grand Rapids Community Foundation’s assets declined from $240 million in the 2008 fiscal year to $190 million in FY 2009, before recovering to $211 million in FY 2010.On the donor side, the recession represented a “good time for us to connect with our stakeholders,” Sieger said.

As the recession cut into the ability of individuals to give at prior levels, the Grand Rapids Community Foundations worked to shore up relationships with benefactors and take a longer view of giving through, for instance, focusing more on estate planning and bequests, and looking at “other ways to give,” said Marilyn Zack, the foundation’s vice president of development.

“We just sort of shifted the conversation,” she said. “We all just tried to be very realistic about what everybody was giving then and developing strategies for that time.”

Donors now are “starting to dip their toe back in the water,” Zack said, though “people are still really cautious.”

Lingering concerns have gone beyond the economy. The continuation of tax cuts on the federal level for high net-worth individuals and state taxation also played a role in donor confidence, she said.

In Muskegon, 2010 “was an encouraging year, especially at the end,” Community Foundation for Muskegon County President Chris McGuigan said. Forty percent of all gifts to the foundation came in the last two months of the year, she said.

The foundation has seen an increase in the number of donations received via stocks, which are usually sold immediately. The foundation is focusing more these days on encouraging donations from people who want to leave a long-term legacy, McGuigan said.

The increase in stock gifts, which now accounts for about half of the foundation’s donations, “tells us people are feeling more confident they have enough to live on the rest of their lives,” she said.

The Muskegon foundation learned during the recession that using a fundraising model that focuses on the impact of a donor’s gift “is the right one.”

In 2011 and beyond, McGuigan said, “Our challenge will be to build on to what we learned and make giving more satisfying.”